Leonov's first spacewalk
His suit ballooned, then they landed in wolf-ridden taiga
On 18 March 1965 Alexei Leonov made the first spacewalk, lasting 12 minutes. His suit ballooned and he got back into the airlock only by bleeding its pressure below safe limits. The capsule landed off target in taiga near Perm, and the crew spent two freezing nights there with a pistol against wolves and bears.
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The first man to walk in space was, ten years later, the first to shake an American's hand in orbit. Alexei Leonov stepped out of Voskhod 2 in 1965 and in 1975 greeted Thomas Stafford through the Soyuz hatch. Share →
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Whole world
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- 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights — 17 years earlier
- 1949 Founding of NATO — 16 years earlier
- 1980 Smallpox declared eradicated — 15 years later
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Europe
- 1941–1945 The Holocaust — 24 years earlier
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- 1968 May 1968 in France — 3 years later
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Middle East
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- 1953 Iranian coup against Mosaddegh — 12 years earlier
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Africa
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Asia
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Americas
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Oceania
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Alive at the time
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